Frosty Mountain

Quick report

Weather

cold

Ride Type

steepSlopes, openTrees, alpineSlopes, denseTrees

Riding Quality

terrible

Snow Conditions

windAffected, crusty, hard

Frosty Mountain skin track isn't great as there is deadfall and the trail is pretty meandering. Really cold day (started at -17) and no recent snow at all made for a pretty terrible ski day, although there were beautiful blue skies. We ascended to just above the larches, where the climb to the peaks really begins, and it was really rocky with thin snow. Given how hard and icy the conditions were we didn't climb any further, although we could see skiers at the summit. We rode out the bowls very carefully, as we didn't want to ski out the skin track. We skied really carefully as conditions were really difficult, and there was lots of exposure. Avalanche debris visible in the lowest bowl where the trees and creek area begin. The first 1/3 of the creek descent is okay, the second 1/3 is pretty bad but passable, but the last 1/3 was awful. Really crusty and not enough snow coverage to make the creek skiable with all the deadfall. That's definitely our mistake. Great skiing across the lakes on the way back though! We had to look hard for silver linings, but skiing the lakes by moonlight felt pretty good.